Etymologically
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incomitatus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪŋ.kɔ.mɪˈtaː.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [iŋ.ko.miˈtaː.tus][1]

Forms

incomitātus (feminine incomitāta, neuter incomitātum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + comitātus (“accompanied”), with the negative prefix.[2][3][1] The OLD takes the second part as the participle of comitō, Georges and Wiktionary as that of comitor (“to accompany”).[2][3][1] The verb is formed from comes (“companion”), which de Vaan explains as a compound of com- and the root for “to go” with a suffix, Proto-Italic *kom-i-t- (“going together”), whose second part continues Proto-Indo-European *-h₁i-t- (“going, goer”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Lucretius,[5] who has incomitata funera, funerals without a following.[6][7] Varro, of the same period, writes that in Illyricum girls are allowed to roam about incomitatis, unescorted.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it rare and mostly poetic, and note that it is not in Cicero, where the right reading of De oratore 1.234 is incompta.[6][8] It is used of people, especially women, in Varro and Virgil, of a litter in the younger Seneca, and in Silius Italicus' incomitata vestigia ferre, to walk alone.[3][6] Figuratively Ovid has externis virtus incomitata bonis, virtue unaccompanied by outward goods, and Ambrose numquam incomitata virtus.[3][7] Medieval British writers keep the sense unaccompanied, of people and of virtues.[9]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius has incomitata funera.[6][5]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of girls going about unescorted.[2][5]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of virtue without outward goods.[6][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Unaccompanied, unescorted, alone.[2][6]
  2. Figuratively, not attended by something.[3][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  8. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  9. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press